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Sunday, September 30, 2012

Welcome to the recap of Sweet New Zealand #14, the monthly blogging
event where you don’t win anything!

Hahaha sorry I couldn’t help myself, after seeing those “Money is
bad” and “Money is good” posters and ads around I was just looking for an
excuse to talk about them!

Anyway, enough about strange advertising, and without further ado
here is the recap for September.

The entries are in chronological order, if I forgot anyone please
let me know, and for future reference I would like to remind you that the only
rule of Sweet NZ is that the logo and name of the host are to be added to the
post (even if the post is old) otherwise the game is not fair.

For my experience Sweet New Zealand always starts slowly, and then
on the last two days it becomes an “open fire!” of last minutes entries! Future
hosts, please remember this and don’t panic if by mid-month you are a bit low, entries
will come later, and we all lead a busy life (or at least, I do!).

Still, being the host myself I thought of giving the good example
starting off with an entry for the blog Only Recipes. It is a spoon dessert
made with Fresh As strawberry powder and egg whites (after a first experiment I
found egg yolk to be a bit too yellow and alter the pink colour that I wanted
for this pudding). Here it is, Fresh As strawberry pudding.

Second entry is from Allison from Pease Pudding: Brown Sugar Shortbread with Salted Caramel. The entry comes with a
post (and amazing photos) about Rarotonga, and I was really impressed that
Allie actually baked these little gems there instead of just sunbathing on that
hammock. Here are her words:

“…It was an interesting exercise
baking a batch of cookies and caramel at the tropical beach hut with limited
equipment…”

Next on is Lucy, our Kitchen Maid, who re-proposes
a new and improved take on a classic Macaroon Slice. My husband would love this
one, he is not impressed by the fancy petit
and mignon French macarons, for him a macaroon is
something like what Lucy’s makes, and describes
as “…chewy, coconutty and you can whip it up in one bowl…” sort of slice. I
must add that the “in one bowl” bit is always a winner with me (I really
dislike washing up, did I ever tell that?).

This is my sort of cookie, and even if I am not a cookie and milk
person (I prefer cookies and coffee, or even cookies and tea!) I love this
picture with a glass of milk so much! Maybe I should add that Arfi is also a
very talented photographer!

Emma is our Kiwi blogger/chef living in Australia, so she gets
strawberries before most of us in NZ (decent strawberries, I mean, I needed
some for work at the beginning of the month, and I did find them in the shops,
but it took me half an hour to sort out the photogenic ones!). Don’t apologize
Emma, we will get ours soon and we will be able to make your recipe… is the
mangos that I am mostly envious of!

with Lemon and ginger cheesecake cupcakes. I was so impressed with Julie taking part with a sweet treat that looks scrummy but actually follows her new eating regime (wheat free, low fat and only natural sugars). Welcome Julie, I look forward to see what else you will be able to whip up, since you have the skills!

Sweet Arfi sent a second entry, Gluten-Free WholeTangelo Almond Loaf. This looks so good and so my sort of cake (probably being Italian I am a big fan of almonds and citrus…), but what I like most about this is that the fruit comes from her tangelo tree. The few citrus plants that I have in my gardens are in pots and will never produce a harvest big enough to show off, but still, I am always proud and thankful even for a few lemons, and I leave off the enthusiasm of other gardeners and relish in their crops, even if only virtually!

Mel is back blogging from her Treehouse Kitchen, and I asked her to
share this mango pudding. She didn’t make it, the recipe came from her friend
Char, but Mel describes it as “Creamy, rich
and so mangoey, for lack of a better adjective!” and we have a photo of
it! Mel apologizes for the lighting, but hey, I think it is great that
she even managed to take photos during a dinner party (have a look at the rest
of them). Usually I am so busy chatting that I remember when the last forkful is left on the plate.

Now here is my entry from this very blog,
Vegan Chocolate Brownies. A double recipe really, as it starts with a vegan
‘nutella’, that then can be transformed into brownies for the sole reason of
not ending up, spoon by spoon, all in my belly.

And another one from me from the Vegan
Blog. Yes another Vegan treat, but super easy and uncomplicated, Mandarin chocolates made with Fresh As dried mandarins. The result is quite
sophisticated really, one of those recipes where the only thing that counts is
the quality of the ingredients: the fruit, and good dark chocolate.

Three chocolate entries one after the other (must be that time of the month?). Here is Bridget from
After Taste with Self-Saucing Chocolate Puddings. Bridget, first of all you are
not alone liking cold
desserts (not sure about the other leftovers though…). Second, happy first blog
birthday, and finally, these puddings looks super chocolaty and yummy!

Frances from the Bake Club breaks the chocolate
cycle with Honey semifreddo, a recipe from Nigella but with pistachio instead
of roasted pine nuts. Once again, being Italian I am a fan of semifreddo, one of the best and easiest way to make an ice cream at home. I also need to add, for the gluten free gals, that this is gluten free too!

For the “unusual” adjective… adding the whole
orange seems fine to me, but for the warm water and baking soda I cannot
comment, as I don’t use baking soda in baking. Anyone with some intelligence
about this?

Last but not least is Sue from Couscous and Consciousness, a late
entry maybe, but quite well timed too so that I can introduce her properly as
the host for the next Sweet New Zealand (October 2012).

This month Sue proposes an Upside-down pineapple and kawakawa cake,
made with the kawakawa tea we received at the food bloggers conference. And as
a bonus you can also read about day one of the conference in the same post!

But hey, wait, just as I am writing this here
arrives Lesley from Eat etc.

(what did I tell you about “open fire”?). But a welcome pretty and Spring like entry this
is: Very berry Belgian biscuits! And I see a classy
use for the Fresh As blackcurrant powder. Thank you for the entry Lesley, and
for the lovely photo too!

And now all off to visit each others and acknowledge (and compliment) your creations! And remember to keep your eyes peeled for when Sue
will announce the next Sweet New Zealand!

Cook one cup of quinoa with two cups of water for 20 minutes. In the meantime chop very finely a small carrot, a small cucumber and a bunch of onion weeds (or spring onions). Put the still hot quinoa into a serving bowl, add two tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, the chopped vegetables, the juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste. This dish can be served warm or cold (yes, even if it has cucumber it can be served warm!). Just before serving add edible flowers: I used onion weed flowers, marigold, violets and bok choy flowers.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Isn't it nice when goody bags last a long time? The 2 (yes 2) goody bags I got from the NZ Food Bloggers Conference where so full of goodies that I am still using some, and for some of us who had to travel back to Auckland with extra luggage Andrea offered to bring up the Kokako gifts. I knew that it was some organic hot chocolate but then when I found out that it came with a mug with mustaches I immediately told Arantxa, and she was so excited!! She loves those quirky mustaches! I said that I would give the cup to her. And Andrea mailed it over to me (we are all so busy in Auckland!!!) and guess what, it arrived on Max's birthday, a perfect day, as he was busy opening all his mail and presents and it was great that there was something for Arantxa as well. Thank you Kokako and Andrea. And of course the organic hot chocolate is delicious, this was breakfast on Sunday, I had some too, and maybe I will have to get a mustache cup for myself as well!

Tuesday, September 25, 2012

This didn't start as a brownie, it started as a vegan chocolate-hazelnut spread. I had some hazelnuts to roast, and after doing that I decided to use a few for a nutella like spread, but vegan... and more chocolaty :-).

Vegan chocolate-hazelnut spread

5 tbps roasted hazelnuts (remove all skin too!)

3 tbps rice bran oil

100 gr dark chocolate (72% and dairy free)

50 ml hot water

Blend the hazelnuts and oil with an immersion blender until you get a cream. In the meantime melt the chocolate with hot water at bain-marie (nothing bad will happen, just keep stirring!). Mix everything together. If the hazelnuts are not fresh or oily enough you may need a bit more oil.

But my problem is that when I have a chocolate spread I don't spread it, I eat it all with a spoon! Too dangerous, I had to make something with it. What about a Vegan chocolate slice, a bit like a Vegan chocolate brownie...

Vegan chocolate brownie

6 tbsp of Vegan chocolate-hazelnut spread (recipe above)

100 g ground almonds

2 tbsp sugar

100 g self rising flour

200 ml soy milk

100 g dark chocolate broken into small pieces with a knife

Icing sugar to dust (optional)

Gently heat the chocolate-hazelnut spread until is soft (not melted) enough to make it easier to fold in the rest of the ingredients. Start with the ground almonds first, then add the sugar, half of the soy milk and half of the flour. Fold in the rest of the ingredients (if it looks too thick add a bit more soy milk) and the chocolate, then pour into a square or rectangular baking tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 160 C for about 30 minutes, or until the surface looks cooked but the centre is still a little soft. Dust with icing sugar (optional) and set aside to cool down. Cut only when completely cold and set (in fact wait for a day if you can!).

It is yummy and delicately nutty with lovely pieces of dark chocolate melting into every bite.

This recipe is for Sweet New Zealand, the sweet monthly blogging event for Kiwis, this month of September hosted by moi, so I won't bother adding the link because it would bring you straight back here, even if this would probably register as an extra visit :).

Anyway, if you haven't entered your recipes please remember that you have time until the 28th of this month, if you have posted some nice biscuits on your blog (Allie!!!) but not emailed me the link and photo please do so, or if you have sent me the link but haven't updated the posts with the Sweet New Zealand banner (lovely sisters????) please do that too before the 28th :-).

Monday, September 24, 2012

Thank you to all of you for your lovely thoughts about lunches in New Zealand schools. Little time to post recipes today, So I am adding a photo of another lunch box idea, a lunch box for two (to share with your friend at school or at work :-)). The 'main' is avocado pita bread (the pita bread being the only thing pre-made here (and baked too, the rest is raw). In the pita sandwiches there is avocado (treated with lemon juice not to go brown), lettuce and cherry tomatoes. The rest, as you can see, is fruit: green and gold kiwi fruit, mandarin, grapes and strawberries. Believe it or not this was actually quite filling!

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Party Food for Girls was once more on tour, today at the Storyfest with another sugar roses' workshop for children (of all ages) and a baking demonstration too. We started with baking cupcakes at 10am, and then we moved to our workshop table to show the kids how to make sugar roses and decorate their own cupcakes.

Arantxa and Martina teaching the children how to make sugar roses.

Next table down we had lovely Dawn McMillan (pictured here with Libro International children book editor Carolyn Lagahetau). Dawn is the author of I need a new bum!, an hilarious new book all about ... Bums! She was at the Storyfest with illustrator Ross Kinnaird who did a lot of sketches for the children present. And we had so many children around, all reading books and attending all the creative workshops that Storyfest had to offer.

Literally hundred of children came to our stall to make sugar roses, here is what some of them made.

I would like to thank Martina and Arantxa for helping all day long (9:30 to 4:30!), and everyone at Going West for organizing another wonderful Book & Writers Festival. Well done!